Sick

Nora is sick. She started to complain about feeling tired on Monday late afternoon after spending the night with her friend, Sophie. Nora is my child who always knows how to take care of her body. When she is tired, she sleeps. When she is hungry, she eats. When she has had enough TV, she turns off the TV.
Monday she told Gary she was tired at 5pm and was in her PJs, in her bed sleeping within ten minutes. At 10 she woke up, complaining of feeling hot and wanting to sleep in our bed. I took her temp and it was up to 103.
I am so grateful that Gary and I welcome our children in bed with us. Our bed is such a comfort to not only Gary and I at the end of the day, but also to Nora when she is ill, Jonah when he wakes up in the middle of the night and Sadie when she has nightmares.
And sometimes people just end up there, just because.
That is ok with Gary and I.
I remember when I had Molly as a young child and wasn't as cued in to our own family needs and used to worry so much that she would be sleeping with us forever. Now I am free to let these worries go and recognize that this is very temporary and that my children are learning their safe places and how to go out and explore the world with the safety of unconditional regard at the end of the day.
Having a sick child or being sick myself is not one of my favorite experiences but Nora has made this experience so interesting for me. She lets people take care of her so beautifully and knows what to ask for when her body needs it. She spent the entire day in bed yesterday with a fever of up to 104 and when I asked her what she needed, her responses were always something like, "sleep," "a cuddle" or "a Popsicle." I downloaded two books for her to listen to from the library. She listened to "The Linden Tree" which she loved. I wasn't able to listen to the whole thing with her because Gary was playing in Vermont and Jonah and Sadie required a lot of me too but when I asked her about it at the end of the day she told me it was about a family who had lost their mother. She told me that a lot of times I picked out books that were older or about older girls and when I asked her if she would rather listen to something like Junie B Jones, she emphatically responded No!
Now this is interesting to me because at the same time Sadie loves to watch Curious George and read very low level books alongside her Harry Potters and Little Women. My children oscillate in age range and this is nice.
Nora told me that she liked this story and it was nice to listen to.
She told me that one thing that bothered her was the they never told the reader how the mother died. She guessed aloud that maybe it was just old age and then thought about this for a moment and said that that was probably not the reason, "right, mom?"
I told her probably not and then somehow we got on to the discussion of Grampa and I asked her if she ever thought about her Grampa who died 9 months ago and she told me she did......... "all the time."
Today Nora woke up with a fever down to 102 and wanting to watch some tv. I am not feeling well today and so we made plans to shut ourselves up in this room and watch tv and read books and maybe if we feel up to it after everyone else has left for a bit we can paint her dollhouse.
But only if we are up to it.
Nora will tell me if she is up to it and I know she will know.